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Everybody complaining about having kids at the ballpark, you do realize EVERY major league stadium has some kind of area that kids can go and be entertained.

So if its good enough for major league teams to have, then why the hell are you complaining?

If ya'll are b*tching about it this much now then where was all the complaining before they put in a playground and the kids had to sit in their seats the whole game?

And those of you who claim to have paid attention to the whole game as a small child you are flat out lying or you have the worst memory ever. No kid under 9-10 has the attention span to pay attention to a 3+ hour slow moving baseball game. Hell 50% of adults can even do it.

What? I've been going to games since I was 12 I think. I remember games clearly in 2001-2002. I was 12 in 2001. Now I totally agree kids need their own interactive areas and other interactive stuff throughout the game, but kids 100% belong at games. As my favorite show Breaking Bad famously quotes - "Hearts and minds, right? Win them young and they'll be yours forever."

Having kids at games is important for the future of the program, as silly and cliche as it may sound. Those are the kids that will end up being die-hard fans as students, and down the road some of THOSE kids will become boosters.

Call me old school, but when I went to the game as a wee kid, It was to watch baseball...not play on a playground.

I have very fond memories of sliding down the hill at The Sarge (where the Roost is now) on cardboard, and running around outside the outfield and peaking through the fence to watch games :).

The difference is that was 30 years ago. Today you can't let your kids out of your sight for fear someone will kidnap or worse. Like it or not, the playground is there. There is nothing you can do about it.

I guess I'm lucky...Little Man went to his first game at The Sarge (Clemson 2008) about 6 weeks before his 3rd birthday. Sat on Poppi's lap the entire time, watching the game. He was completely enthralled with the happenings on the field. Of course, I had already planned that if he got antsy I would leave and we'd PLT it for the game. He has sat through too many games to count since then.

My dad took me to baseball games and I was into the game and the players and the sport, which is why I like it today.

Parents who need wifi and jungle gyms to compensate for the bad parenting that has left their kids with so much ADD that they can't enjoy a baseball game, and let their brats run amok in sports stadiums and tell everyone else to "get over it", are assholes who need to be sterilized and have their kids taken away by child protective services, and charged with neglect.

Well thanks for sharing your intelligent and thoughtful comment with the rest of us.

First, the jungle gym doesn't compensate for "bad parenting". You're obviously not a parent, so I'll just chalk it up to having no idea what your talking about, rather than intentionally trying to provoke people. If I, as a parent decide to take my two and half year old son to a USC baseball game, it's to spend time with him. I'm doing it to share a love for something that I love.

However, I am a realistic person. I understand that my two and a half year old son will not sit in a chair for more than thirty minutes (regardless of where we are) at a time. Because he's little. It doesn't mean I'm a bad parent, it doesn't mean he's a bad kid. That's just the way the world works, sport.

Accordingly, because I am considerate of both my son's wants and my seat neighbors, after awhile I walk around the concourse with him a little, because walking around and looking at things is fun for him.

We'll go walk around and talk to Cocky sometimes. My son loves Cocky. That's probably one of the best parts of the whole outing for him. Giving Cocky a "high five" when you're two is a big deal. When we ask my son what he wants to name a new stuffed animal, he says "Cocky" three out of four times. So, there's more to the game than just the game. I'm not sharing the subtleties of the hit and run with him just yet, bro.

Did I ask for a jungle gym? No. Will I let my son go play on a jungle gym during the game? You bet your ass I will. And he'll have fun doing it. I'll be standing there right beside him in that area enjoying that with him, occasionally looking over to the field to watch the action.

There's more to a baseball game than just baseball. It's an experience. This jungle gym adds to the experience for those who choose to avail themselves of it. If you don't want to play on the jungle gym, that's fine. Don't. But try not to tell other people what to do, bro. It's kind of a negative character trait.

If they're too young to enjoy the game and they are whining about food and twiddling their thumbs getting antsy, then they need to be home with a sitter.

Huh? I guess all that concession food they serve totally takes away from the enjoyment of the game, too. Right? If some d-bag wasn't chowing down on those chicken fingers and honey mustard he would have noticed the SS shift over a little indicating the wheel play was on, amirite?

People who eat food at ballgames suck, amirite? That kid shouldn't be eating ice cream out of a baseball helmet shaped cup, he should be learning about how to follow up a fastball inside with an off-speed pitch away.

Seriously sport, you're starting to make worse arguments as you go along.

The playground is simply capitulation that the athletic program knows there's nothing we can do about these parents, so we might as well take their money while they make the game experience miserable for everybody else.

Please state (if you can) specifically how children playing on a jungle gym makes "the game experience miserable" for you. I'll wait.

Well I don't know if they will or not. But the point is, we wouldn't have the need for the playground if people would take their kids to see a baseball game, and not take them somewhere so they can run amuck simply because the parents are so moronic that they can't teach their child why they're there in the first place. Spend time with your kids and teach them about the game of baseball and bond with your kids. And if they are under the age of understanding why they are there, then get a sitter. But don't subject the whole place to your whims just because you think it's fun to bring a 2-year-old to a baseball game.

How about you don't subject little children to your illogical, emotionally based whims because you think it's fun to suck the fun out of life?

It doesn't affect their status as a Gamecock fan as you pointed out, but it could/does affect their status as a caring person.

Oh, yeah. I'm sure everyone who doesn't want an ugly playground in the ballpark instead of the perfectly functional Gamecock-themed bounce castle the kids have been using the past few years is completely devoid of human empathy.

It is an opinion, but when you've been asked repeatedly to explain how a kid playing on a playground makes the game miserable for everyone else, and you refuse to answer, you kind of bring all of it against yourself.

I'm sure the fans sitting in sections 8 and 9 will be so miserable that kids are playing on the playset 280 feet away...or even those sitting in like section 17. Gah, they won't even be able to see the kids really, but they will be miserable, I guarantee it.